The Manhunter: NY Drabbles
by Balin Lord of Moria
Summary: A series of short stories about the adventures of the Manhunter and the anti-Orb underground movement in Manhunter: New York. Rated T for horrific, but mostly non-graphic, violence.
1. Ravenous Babies

**A/N: **There are serious stories in this drabble collection, too, but it's main theme, besides post-apocalyptic horror, is humor. This is meant for the reader to laugh at, or at least chuckle at.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the _Manhunter_ games; Sierra and Dave, Barry, and Dee Dee Murry do.

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_Ravenous Babies_

It certainly smelled putrid inside the hospital room the Manhunter walked into. The room was mostly unfurnished, but there was an operating table in the room, and it looked like a dead human body was lying on it. One of the lethal guard robots was blocking entry to the hallway, saying: DO NOT ENTER.

He had come to investigate the explosion here, and that's what he set about doing now. A big toe tag with IOU written on it was hanging from his foot. The Manhunter read it, but all that was easily readable was: Name: Reno Davis, Age: 38. He decided to check it out on MAD in a minute.

He then took a look at Reno's face. It looked as if his flesh had been partly eaten away by something. Was it some kind of alien bacteria? He looked at the eyes, and despite the fact that this man was obviously dead, they were rolling in their sockets in very odd ways. They made perfect 360 degree turns in his sockets, and rolled opposite directions from each other. They rolled left, right, up, down, and round and round. Then they seemed to pop out of the sockets in alarm when they noticed him. But as they left Reno's head entirely and began to float about, he suddenly realized what they were.

_They were baby Orbs!_

He backed up in surprise, and then he noticed the man's open ribcage. More baby Orbs were swimming in it. They were feasting, quite literally, on Reno Davis' body! The "eyes" that turned out to be Orb babies joined with the other babies excitedly.

And then... the baby Orbs all proceeded to fly up towards the Manhunter's face, and began chewing on his bewildered face, cleanly stripping his skull of his skin and flesh. They enjoyed every tasty bite and morsel they had. "How sweet! Fresh meat!"

Then two of the babies took their places where his eyeballs used to be. Everything went black...

In the darkness, the Manhunter suddenly saw the robed and hooded figures of Dave, Barry and Dee Dee Murry. They looked at him with amusement and shook their heads.

"Babies never seem to get enough to eat!" they said. "Now let's back up to a few minutes before you made your fatal mistake..." Everything went black again...

Then, he woke up just outside the hole in the hospital wall. Thanking God (or whoever ruled the universe) for this miracle of apparent resuscitation, he went through the motions again, only without letting the babies eat him this time, and went back outside to check his MAD device again for Reno Davis.


	2. Playing With Knives

_Playing With Knives_

The Flatbush Bar was hopping. That was not unusual, because the citizens of New York had been trying their best to enjoy their lives any way they could, even with the oppressive Orb Alliance controling the city. Men, and maybe women, were drinking at the bar or at nearby tables, drinking and communicating without spoken words. There was something odd, even eerie, about watching a bunch of people in matching brown robes and hoods sitting around acting almost perfectly normally. It was a chilling reminder of how New York had changed so much.

The Manhunter had found little to go on at the Trinity Church. He couldn't find any evidence of what had happened there, so he decided just to proceed to Flatbush Bar and continue to tail the man/woman he was tracking.

He remembered that they had gone over to a machine by the side wall of the bar, and he went to check it out. It was an arcade game called, "HALLS, BALLS, WALLS, AND DOLLS." He looked at it, wondering what exactly had been done with it, when many hands suddenly grabbed him from behind and lifted him into the air! Several people from the bar were holding him above their heads. They tossed him about, eventually plopping him down in front of a little table. The big, strong bartender strolled over to him, and one of the men forced the Manhunter to put his hand on the table and spread his fingers out. The bartender tossed four knives, one at a time, each between two of his fingers, never striking a finger or landing a knife outside of his hand. Then he signalled that he wanted the Manhunter to do the same to him.

Manhunter was uncertain about this, but chose to try his best to humor these people. He threw a couple of knives, and landed them between some of the barman's fingers. Then, he accidentally hit one of the barman's fingers. The big guy winced in pain, and then glowered at the Manhunter. Then, he grabbed him by the neck and lower head and began to squeeze, lifting him up off the ground, until his head unexpectedly squirted off his neck and bit the ceiling. Purple flesh and blood made a mess where he once stood. The bartender tossed the Manhunter's headless corpse aside like a sack of manure.

Guess what. The Manhunter found himself facing the Murry siblings again. They shook their heads and said, "You will never succeed if you keep losing your head like that! Now let's back up to a few minutes before you made your fatal mistake."

A couple seconds later, he was outside the Flatbush Bar again. Shrugging, he went inside again, and soon the guys and gals at the bar grabbed him again. Again he tried to throw all four knives between the bartender's fingers. This time he landed one outside the range of his hand. For this, the disappointed barman had his boys throw Manhunter out the doors, literally, and into the street. Manhunter got up, dusted himself off, and went back inside again.

The bartender agreed to give him one more chance. This time, the Manhunter concentrated very carefully when he made each throw. The first throw made it between two fingers without striking either of them. It was the same way with the second, and the third, and then the fourth. When he was finished, the bartender unexpectedly smiled.

The barman's friends joined him on the other side of the table. Then he showed the Manhunter a signal of some sort. He raised his right arm and moved it up and down three times in a position as if he was flushing a toilet.

Manhunter was still nervous around these people, and considered running away, which he started to do, in fact. But the bartender stopped him, signaling that it was all right. Then he and his buddies turned tail and retreated back to the bar as if in a panic!

The Manhunter wondered if he had somehow scared them, but wrote it off as his imagination, and returned to the arcade game, determined to play it and find out what his target had been doing with it.


End file.
